Pakistan army halts operations in Swat

[Coventina]

Source: International Herald Tribune

The Pakistan army said on Monday it had ceased operations against Taliban militants in the northwestern valley of Swat, and an Islamist cleric asked for troops to be shifted to "safer places" to give peace a chance.

U.S. officials have expressed unease about Pakistan's strategy for pacifying Swat. They fear it could result in another safe haven for al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the country.

"The military operation has been halted," military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told Reuters, explaining that further civilian casualties would have alienated support for the army.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes, and the Taliban largely controls the valley despite the presence of four army brigades or 12,000 to 16,000 troops.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2009/02/23/asia/OUKWD-UK-PAKISTAN-SWAT.php

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Because giving in to the terrorists always works....

[Coventina]

1. Taliban talks progressing in Pakistan's Swat

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkiMxbHNH0BqgpWA2ZG6VD6wVTmAD96HAHVG0

MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) — A hardline cleric dispatched by Pakistan to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban said the right of girls to attend school in the Swat valley was still under discussion but did not say whether the militants were planning to disarm.

Sufi Muhammad's remarks Monday will do little to allay concerns by Western governments and liberal Pakistani commentators that the deal offered by the government in the northwestern region represented a surrender to extremists that could end up giving them a safe haven.

A peace deal last year in Swat allowed militants to regroup and rearm before breaking down, officials have said.

Pakistan has offered to introduce a mild form of Shariah Islamic law in the valley if the Taliban stop fighting. Both sides have agreed to a cease-fire while the talks are going on. Prior to the initiative, the Taliban were in control of much of the area in defiance of a military offensive.

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Glad to see the Taliban are at least "discussing" the possibility of girls going to school.

:eyes:

[ohio2007]

2. Taliban given $6 million to stop attacking Pak forces....for awhile....

Pakistan: Militants receive compensation for peace deal

snip
Pakistani militants in the country's northwest are understood to have received ( 6 million dollars) in compensation after agreeing to a cease conflict with government forces for an indefinite period.
snip

The security official said the amount was delivered from a special fund of president Asif Ari Zardari. All the tribal areas come under the president's jurisdiction and a special aid package, including a donation from the US, was designated for the tribal area by the president's office and distributed through the governor's office in the North West Frontier Province.
snip

An historic agreement endorsing Sharia law was reached between the government and local leader Sufi Mohammad a week ago. The deal ended two years of fierce conflict in which at least 1,700 government soldiers and hundreds of civilians were killed and 600,000 people were displaced.

The Taliban endorsed the deal after Sufi Mohammad, head of the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi discussed details of the government's proposal with Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah and demanded that the Taliban lay down its arms.

The Taliban initially expressed its concerns and demanded guarantees regarding the withdrawal of around 10,000 Pakistani army soldiers deployed in the Swat Valley.
snip

"It is also essential to win the heart and minds of the people. Since militants blended with the civilian population, it was practically impossible to target them. In these circumstances, if the military continued its operations, innocent people would have been killed,” Abbas maintained.

Meanwhile leader of Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi Sufi Mohammad said in a media conference in Swat on Monday that the peace agreement would be implemented in phases and appealed to people to come back to their homes.

He asked the Taliban to immediately stop their armed opposition movement and avoid carrying guns in public.

He also demanded the government to release jailed militants and ordered the military to immediately leave all schools and mosques.

Meanwhile, a shura or tribal council of mujahadeen leaders namely including Baitullah Mehsud, Sirajuddin Haqqani, Moulvi Nazeer and Gul Bahadur formed an alliance and vowed to stop all hostilites against Pakistani security forces .

Instead they vowed to launch a joint struggle against NATO forces in Afghanistan next month.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3045993078


re arm for the spring offensive and a promise the Pak forces will look the other way ....as long as the Taliban press their suicide bombers against Afghan civilians...er..NATO targets.

09 is the year that will determin what fate Barack decides upon Afghanistan.
Let them go back to the dark ages, kicking,screaming and fighting every inch of the slippery slope course until we decide we can't stomach being there

or

see them slip back into the 7th century by watching the Taliban use democracy to beat them back into the dark ages.

The ball is in Baracks court.

[bemildred]

3. "Can't we all just get along?" -- Rodney King

"the Taliban largely controls the valley despite the presence of four army brigades or 12,000 to 16,000 troops"

[ohio2007]

4. ISI looking for some bailout $ from Canada

AQ would have had her melon full of lead a year ago. The ISI controlled Taliban is leaking out their next demands for the springtime

Abducted Canadian journalist appears in video
OTTAWA: A Canadian journalist abducted last year in Pakistan has surfaced, telling of her ordeal in a videotape obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., the public broadcaster reported Monday.

Beverly Giesbrecht, 52, also known as Khadija Abdul Qahaar, was seized at gunpoint in November while traveling in the Bannu district.

She was reportedly gathering materials for a documentary for her website, which offers alternative news on the Islamic world.
In the four-minute-and-43-second video, Giesbrecht says she was kidnapped by the Taliban on her second trip to the region to meet a man with a rare coin collection whom she wished to interview.

"I have been in captivity now for almost three months," she said. "I wake up in the dark and I go to sleep in the dark. There is nothing but a wood furnace and not enough wood.

"I am not sure exactly my location. I am some place in the Afghan border area. There are air raids. This is the war zone."

Canada's foreign affairs department has said it is engaged with Pakistani authorities to try to free her. It has not commented on the video tape.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=69473

Canada's foreign minister will have to work with the real Pak govt in the Swat valley and grease those palms with alms if they want to get her body back alive.

The weak Islamabad govt has a new priority; putting out fires elsewhere in their shrinking sovereign state

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan/Pakistan-to-set-up-elite-police-force-for-NWFP/rssarticleshow/4177343.cms